[hirsin]

> I don't see 5-10x more useful features in the software I use, or 5-10x more software that's useful to me, or that the software I'm using is suddenly working 5-10x better, etc.

This has bad assumptions about what higher productivity looks like.

Other alternatives include:

1. Companies require fewer engineers, so there are layoffs. Software products are cheaper than before because the cost to build and maintain them is reduced.

2. Companies require fewer engineers so they lay them off and retain the spend, using it as stock buybacks or exec comp.

And certainly it feels like we've seen #2 out in the wild.

Assuming that the number of people working on software you use remains constant is not a good assumption.

(Personally this has been my finding. I'm able to get a bit more done in my day by eg writing a quick script to do something tedious. But not 5x more)